Grid Computing: Conceptual Flyover For Developers

An anonymous reader writes "This article relates many Grid computing concepts to known quantities for developers, such as object-oriented programming, XML, and Web services. The author offers a reading list of white papers, articles, and books where you can find out more about Grid computing."

Comments

So what exactly is "grid computing"?

[evil_one666]

So what is exactly "Grid Computing"? From the article...

Sometimes it's easier to start defining Grid computing by telling you what it isn't. For instance, it's not artificial intelligence, and it's not some kind of advanced networking technology. It's also not some kind of science-fictional panacea to cure all of our technology ailments.

If you can think of the Internet as a network of communication, then Grid computing is a network of computation: tools and protocols for coordinated resource sharing and problem solving among pooled assets. These pooled assets are known as virtual organizations. They can be distributed across the globe; they're heterogeneous (some PCs, some servers, maybe mainframes and supercomputers); somewhat autonomous (a Grid can potentially access resources in different organizations); and temporary.

Nope- that still does not tell me what "grid computing" is. This vague, loosely defined definition can describe just about every "next big thing" since the mainframe.

Re:So what exactly is "grid computing"?

[carnivore302]

Hmm. It's not that hard, but I agree: the author seems to obfuscate a fairly simple to explain principle.

In a few words: grid computing is the use of many connected computers for one task.

Or, you might want to think about it as multithreading, but spread out over multiple machines.

The author is making a case for a standardization of how this should be handled.

Re:So what exactly is "grid computing"?

[lachlan76]

Keep going:

Consider this: most IT departments are being forced to do more with less. Budgets are tight, resources are thin, and skilled human resources can be scarce or expensive. To top it off, most corporate managers know that they have a super-abundance of idle computing power. It's well known in industry circles that most desktop machines only use 5% to 10% of their capacity, and most servers barely peak out at 20%. No surprise then that many of the big money people in corporate America balk at the thought of purchasing more equipment to get the job done. What these companies need is not more horsepower, but more efficient use of existing horsepower. They need a way to tie all of these idle machines together into a pool of potential labor, manage those resources, and provide secure and reliable access to the number-crunching muscle. Imagine if a corporation or organization could use all of its idle desktop PCs at night to run memory- and processor-intensive tasks? They would get more work done faster, possibly get to market faster, and at the same time cut down their IT expenses.

The idea seems to be to turn the whole network into a cluster. "Why buy more servers when you can gove some of the load to your desktops?" is a short summary.

Re: So what exactly is "grid computing"?

[Alwin Henseler]

"In a few words: grid computing is the use of many connected computers for one task. Or, you might want to think about it as multithreading, but spread out over multiple machines."

In a way it's a matter of taste, but I'd define it this way: "parallel" -> many CPU's, but quite close in 1 place, like in a SMP desktop. "distributed" -> with network in between, as in Beowulf cluster (possibly over the internet).

What would make "distributed" a Grid? The fact that it's 'everywhere', always working/available somewhere, like P2P networks. You can take your equipment off the network, but the network (ehh, grid) goes happily on doing its thing.

This becomes really useful when it's a easy to use and commonplace as the internet today. Send out some software, it grabs a piece of data here, grabs a program there, finds a server to do the computation, and reports back to you with the result. Got some cycles to spare? Put some in the Grid, earn money. Just wait and see, some day computing power will be supplied and consumed the way electric power is today.

Change can be hard

[millahtime]

Recently I saw a similar design for a network and some "old timers" said it was no good to do it this way. It wouldn't satisfy the needs.

One thing I have noticed is that for many "old timers" there is the feeling of we have always done it the old way, why change. Any thoughts of how we drag that old donkey into the new methods when they don't want to go?

Re:Change can be hard

[Timesprout]

Well this is the thing. Many old timers are not adverse to change when clear benefits can be shown from adopting the new technology.

Unfortunately for Grid Computing its still in the stage where people are struggling to explain what it is, nevermind what it does or how it can improve life. Thats always going to be a hard sell to me anyway. If its function is not obvious it makes you sceptical just how necessary it is.

Why is slashdot pushing grid computing so much?

[Tedium Unleased]

The linked article is written in May 2003 yet it's new now?

Unready Hype

[Anonymous Coward]

As part of a university group that adopted Grid computing about a year ago, the Grid is mostly over-hyped material that isn't ready for prime time. The basic idea (see e.g. Legion) worked more than a decade ago, but what I've seen of today's Grid software is fragile, overcoupled, underdocumented, and doesn't yet deliver on all the promises.

We were taught that the test of research software is whether a full professor (or corporate executive or other obscenely busy person worth >> $100/hour) finds it useful enough that they take time to learn it - the uses I've seen for the Grid don't pass that threshold yet.

There are some exceptions: tightly-integrated applications put together in a couple of the hard sciences that really just do supercomputing with a friendlier face. There's enough payoff there for a physicist to be happy with the software.

For a geek, however, even there, most "grid UI research" is simplistic, derivative, and uninspired.

Apologies to my first-ever-advisor who is now a Grid bigwig. :)

Security in Grids

[ifoxtrot]

I have had some experience with grids and the overwhelming difficulties I've come across have been in the areas of security.

First and foremost, grids are designed to run in a distributed environment which makes security design and administration that much more complex.

Second, grids are currently in their infancy and there is little prior art to the types of attacks and problems that will affect them. Despite this, they are very juicy targets with the kind of storage and bandwidth that would make even a hard-bitten cracker weep for joy. (i apologise for the imagery)

Third, in my book security has to be a top-down approach - i.e. the guys on top lead the way and then everyone else follows. Grids have no tops or bottoms which makes this a bit tough to apply. In short there is no security hierarchy in a default grid environment. Responsibility HAS to be established explicitly. A simple example is who is responsible for the data held on one of the nodes? Is it the person who wrote the application, the person who owns the application, the person who owns the hardware?

Grids are fascinating in their security requirements (and those who think these are solved by web services have another thing coming! People are a huge aspect of the security of a system, and distributed system like grids have a very complex task of ensuring that people behave the way they should).

Grid Computing is a buzzword

[joib]

Like, if you fit in "grid computing" in your grant proposal, the probability that you'll get funding increases. Now, if in addition to "grid" you manage to fit in "nanotechnology", "bio-informatics" and "paradigm" you'll be funded with a probability very close to 100 %!

Well it's ONE view on Grid Computing

[joelethan]

This is meant to be a primer, and it just about "primes" the debate on Grid Computing.

The grid discussed here seems only to be built on the OGSA and Globus Toolkit, and Globus has not really covered itself in glory with their poor UIs etc.

Grid seems to address occasional demand for "much more power" from your computing resource, but does not really provide a consistent flexible computing resource.

The academic world uses External Grids to pool resources but private Enterprise has little to gain from these External Grids in exchange for a HUGE security problem.

And Internal Grids? These are so immature as to beggar belief. Why risk investing in these configurations when bang per buck is so uninviting.

/joelethan